Income Status, Perceived Equity of Income Distribution and Political Participation: -- Evidence from the Asian Barometer Survey

Zhiyu Luo

doi:10.54097/hbem.v9i.9258

Authors

Zhiyu Luo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/hbem.v9i.9258

Keywords:

Political Participation; Income Inequality; Perceived Equity of Income Distribution; Political Trust; Government Satisfaction.

Abstract

Popular political participation is an essential aspect of political modernization. Existing studies have focused on institutional political participation, such as voting in elections, and have primarily explained political participation from objective perspectives, such as income status. However, there has been some neglect of non-institutional political participation. In studies affecting political participation, subjective perceptions of the equity of income distribution and their interaction with income have yet to receive sufficient attention. Based on this, this paper uses data from the fourth round (2014-2016) of the 2016 Asian Barometer (ABS) survey to analyze the impact of income status and perceived equity of income distribution on political participation and the mechanisms of their effects through multiple regressions. The results indicate that income and perceived equity of income distribution have a positive effect on institutional political participation; in terms of impact mechanisms, income status and perceived equity of income distribution affect institutionalized political participation by influencing government satisfaction and political trust; subjective perceptions of equity of income distribution influence institutional political participation behavior more than income inequality; the paper concludes by applying social capital theory to explain the finding that income status and perceived income distribution equity are positively associated with non-institutionalized political participation in terms of the participant path and the dominant path.

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